Robben Island — how it came to be

Robben Island lies off Cape Town; its name comes from an archaic Dutch word for seals. Bartolomeu Dias recorded it in 1488, and Portuguese, English and Dutch ships later used it to take on supplies. The Dutch, who arrived at the Cape in 1652, put sheep and rabbits on the island in 1654 and began using it as a prison; its first prisoner was probably Autshumato.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries the island served at different times as a prison, a hospital and a military base. People with leprosy were moved there from 1845, and guns were installed during the Second World War. UNESCO lists 17th-century quarries, a 19th-century chapel and parsonage and the lepers' church among the surviving remains.

From 1961 to 1991 the apartheid-era South African government held political prisoners here. Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on the island. The maximum-security prison closed in 1991 and the medium-security prison in 1996; the island became a museum in 1997 and a World Heritage site in 1999.

How it came to be